


My Wish and Yours

by Yve



Category: Rune Factory, Rune Factory 4
Genre: Age Difference, Consenting Adults, Enthusiastic Consent, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Holiday/New Years theme, Love Confessions, Making Love, Sex, cuties being cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-11
Updated: 2014-12-11
Packaged: 2018-03-01 00:54:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2753540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yve/pseuds/Yve
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little one shot for the holiday season, staring Bado & Frey confessing their feelings for one another after having obsessed on each other in secret for the whole first year Frey lived in Selphia, and consummating those feelings with the utmost elation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Wish and Yours

**Author's Note:**

> I based some parts of this on certain dialogue and interaction from the game that always made me feel that Bado secretly wanted Frey, but would never let on due to a conviction that he could never really have her.
> 
> Also, Rated it Explicit since a good chunk of it is sex, but it's not particularly graphic, mostly focusing on feelings rather than body fluids and the like. That's the way I like it, full of fluff and tame, vanilla lovin' 
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!~

A deep-voiced sigh full of weariness and longing slipped from the mouth of Selphia’s resident dwarven blacksmith, filling up the silent expanse of the little shop. His back stiffened and he sat up and looked around. Empty. Relief made him sigh again. With no one around, there was no need to explain away that slip-up. No need to pretend that what he longed for was money… riches… empty simple things that made people wrinkle their noses in mild disapproval and shake their head at him. That was preferable. As long as they thought they were so much nobler and cleverer than him, he was safe… They’d be too busy lecturing him to see. The truth of it would probably have their jaw’s hanging open and be followed by his immediate expulsion from the town.

That wouldn’t do… Sure it’d be easier on him the farther he was from the subject of his _mostly_ silent obsession, but never seeing her again? _That_ was out of the question… a worst-case-scenario. Of course _he_ knew he was the very last person in the world likely to do her any harm. _He_ would rather be run through with a broadsword than be the one to give her even a small accidental sort of pain. But what were the odds anyone else would believe him? A nearly forty-year-old man pining after someone half his age… especially _her_ … No. No one in Selphia would give _him_ the benefit of the doubt when it came to _her._

How one woman, no matter how young, small and _adorable_ , could be the treasure of an entire town to the degree that she was… it was stranger than fiction. But, then again… it made sense. Had he not plunged uncontrollably into the unyielding grip of these feelings almost as soon as she fell from the sky just shy of one year ago?

That day… it was just an excuse to get out of work for an hour or so, and to satisfy an idle curiosity. It wasn’t every day a woman fell from the sky and immediately took up residence in the castle with the Divine Dragon of wind after all. In fact… it was a singularity of an event. He had been interested to meet her and see if she was an easy mark to tease or sell things to, but the instant those emerald eyes had fixed his gray-blue ones for the first time he was doomed. Her naïve, obliviousness was as endearing as her curvy little figure, soft pink lips, and her delicate hands were alluring. His heart and mind were enthralled to her long eyelashes, her fluttering laugh, and her bright, pure fascination with everything in Selphia.

She had no memory, so everything was new to her. Most people would be scared, overwhelmed, angry… _something_. She was different. Curiosity, optimism and playfulness colored her every new experience so that within one year a stranger had become the darling little princess of the entire town and everyone in it. Every young man in town grew nervous if she smiled at him. Every one of them hoped the cookie she gave him (she gave everyone cookies) on white day carried a meaning greater than friendship. And, every one of them eyed her furtively during swimming season when she, like all the other young folks, wore nothing but a two-piece swimsuit as she frolicked in the lake with seemingly limitless joy and energy.

Everyone admired her most… and he was no exception, but he was _not_ one of the young men. His short beard, smile lines and crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes, combined with his broad shoulders, thick, muscular frame, and large hands and feet (to go with his great height), described a mature man, not a boy just barely out of his teens. She was diminutive, slender, young, and sexy _far_ beyond what was fair, he thought frequently. There could hardly be a less probable match than her in all her sweetness and loveliness with _him_ , the overly tall middle-aged dwarven blacksmith everyone knew to be the laziest man in town. He huffed a little laugh at this. If only they knew how much _work_ it was disguising his feelings for her, they could hardly believe he was as aversive to exerting an effort as they thought him now. But he’d make sure they’d never know.

He was _incredibly_ careful. He gave her as much harmless trouble and teasing as anyone else in the town. If he gave her a cookie on valentine’s day it was just one of many he gave everyone he saw that day. The invisible wish wrapped about it was not a thing she or anyone else could have detected. And, he was always careful to emphasize his age around her. He didn’t _feel_ as old as he claimed to, but calling himself ‘this old man’ and frequently referring to ‘when I was young’ around her couldn’t help but drive home that he was far beyond her in years and therefore there could be no danger of her forming an attachment… the way he had.

Bado rubbed his big, square-ish hand over his eyes, sighing for the third time in five minutes. No… she couldn’t possibly fall for him. She couldn’t know how his heart gave a flutter and a jolt and his breath caught in his throat behind closed lips every time the shop bell rang and the door of the ‘Meanderer’ smithy opened to reveal _her_ stepping into the room with that springy gait. She’d never know how frequently he breathed her name in his sleep, indulging in dreams on what he’d never have in waking life. Those inconsequential moments when she came into his shop and they shared a few words of small talk would be the only bit of her he’d ever have in reality.

It was enough… most days. Most days a few minutes of her bright green eyes and her cheerful smile would have him buoyant for hours and sighing happily once he was alone again. But, there were other days… days like today. She hadn’t stopped by, probably too busy to be wasting time in his ‘blacksmith’ shop full of curiosities, and it had him drooping and sighing, missing even that minor incidental contact so much it _ached_. He rubbed his beard with a frown as he glanced sidelong at the wall calendar. New year’s eve. Holidays always had the whole damn town absolutely _buzzing_. She’d be running around twice as busy as any other day, trying to finish all her farm work and ‘princess’ duties before it was time for the traditional activities associated with whatever holiday it happened to be.

New year’s eve… Everyone would be looking up tonight. Looking up at the stars, making wishes, talking excitedly with one another about those wishes. While they were looking up, he’d be looking at her, stealing glances and committing every laugh and smile that formed on her lips to memory. What could the stars have to offer that would be better than that? And what reason could he have to make a wish tonight? Not only was his a wish that would never leave his lips or fall on the ears of another living soul, it wasn’t even one he could make on a star. What good does it do to ask the stars for something he could never have?

“Jeeze.” He murmured aloud to no one. “This is getting depressing.” No one had been in the shop all afternoon. Only one or two people had even come in earlier that morning to buy mittens or winter hats to wear while they all stood in ankle-deep snow and looked up at the frozen winter sky after dark tonight. All this made it easy enough to rationalize closing early. Hell, it was a holiday, after all. Could anyone really blame him for closing up at 3 in the afternoon? And he needed to be out of here. He needed a distraction, _badly_.

With a sudden resolve to go indulge in a hot bath, he stood up and stretched his stiff limbs with a groan. Upon the counter he set a sign upright, which read ‘I believe in the honor system. Take what you need and leave payment on the counter.’ Just because he wasn’t here to mind the shop didn’t mean he would say no to a purchase. And, things didn’t walk off without being paid for _too_ often…

Bado wordlessly stuffed a change of clothes into a knapsack and left the shop, ducking through the door slightly as he always did. Not every doorframe was too short for his height, but enough of them were to make it safer to just do it everywhere he went. The bite of the winter air made him pull in a sudden breath as his feet sank into the three inches of new snow that had fallen since that morning. He hadn’t thought to throw on a jacket, but it didn’t matter. Boiling the loneliness and longing out of himself in the hot waters of the bathhouse usually made him feel the cold as a pleasant relief, anyway, even when it was below freezing temperatures.

The walk to the Bell hotel and bathhouse was not a long one. As expected, everyone was in high spirits and full of energy, running around throwing snowballs at each other and laughing. It made him tired just to see them, so much so that he quickened his pace rather than see Dylas clobber Doug from behind with a small snow boulder that broke over his red hair, half burying him in snow once he flopped to the ground on his back and pulled Dylas’s ankles out from under him. The taller boy went down like a felled tree and the two wrestled furiously in the fluffy white powder snow, swearing and spitting all their favorite insults at one another as they tussled.

Thinking about the green-eyed object of his desire all day and night left him too exhausted to do much of anything, and no one could know that was the reason for his lethargy. They could all think he was merely lazy and unambitious if they liked. It was true, in a sense. He certainly harbored no ambitions of doing anything with these feelings, other than being plagued by them. In only a few minutes he passed through the ornate entrance to the Bell and set his payment on the counter without more than a toneless half-hello to Xiao Pai standing behind it. She bowed in her clumsy, energetic way and bid him enjoy his bath but he hardly heard her. Silently he reminded himself not to let another wistful sigh out where anyone could hear it.

The heat of the bath was immediately present as he stepped through the curtains and over the threshold into the men’s washroom. He stripped off his clothing mechanically, undoing the buckles of his vest as well as the wide belt around his waist. Peeling off the skin-tight black undershirt, he rubbed at his chest where the thick hair had been pressed down long enough to become uncomfortable. Finally, He slid his underwear down around his ankles and off, taking a slightly masochistic pleasure in the still slightly chilly air in the room. It would make the nearly unbearable heat of the bath all the more enjoyable just as soon as he’d bathed. He washed his face, hair, and body without any particular hurry, letting his mind go blank in the simple act of scrubbing himself down. By the time he was clean his skin was covered in goosebumps from the cool air and he shivered slightly as he padded barefoot into the bath itself.

He let out a long softly voiced sigh of contented pleasure as he waded into the hot water and submerged himself all the way to his chin by leaning back onto his elbows on the step beneath the surface of the water. This place always helped him calm down and forget and even if it was just for a little while, it was still a huge relief. Thinking about her gave him its own kind of satisfaction, but one can’t live in fantasy _all_ the time. Pining for someone he could never have without ever taking a break would kill him for sure, he thought ruefully. At least here he could let his mind relax into stillness, hearing nothing but his own breath and the gentle, soothing sounds of the water all around him. He was the only man in the bath and that was a rare privilege indeed. Those energetic young men had a habit of roughhousing, bickering, and worst of all, talking about _her_ in here.

They would sit close together in the bath as they took in the heat of the water and murmur about the girls, especially in summer when swimsuits were all around. They compared notes on the legs, buttocks, and breasts of all the young women and though there was an abundance of cute girls in this town that was almost unreasonable, _she_ was objectively the choicest piece of fruit in Selphia and was therefore always on their lips during hushed conversations like those. He could have throttled the boys for bringing her into this last refuge from the normally enjoyable torment of imaginings. 

Today though… he was alone in the bath, making ideal conditions for forgetting his impossible infatuation. He drew in a long, deep breath through his nose and sighed it out again, contented. All was quiet on the women’s side of the bath too, though he generally minded _their_ conversation a lot less than the boys’. Just as he was noticing this, he heard the slightly obscured laughter of at least three young ladies flutter into the women’s bath and over the wall to bounce off into his empty side. He smiled slightly. Perhaps he could enjoy eavesdropping on some domestic, feminine chit-chat after all.

Then it all went wrong.

Her voice broke out from the confused chatter of the others, laughing aloud so that his chest tightened and his eyes snapped open. The honey-sweet sound of her laugh, down to the last silky edges of her breath was etched in his mind and inside his ears. He’d know it anywhere. He’d know it from across town on a cold day when the air was thin and it carried on the icy breeze. He’d know it in his sleep if she came into his shop while he was taking a nap on his arms on the counter, and he knew it here now…

Bado fretted and frowned. Now he was pinned between his desire to be free of her for even a little while and the overwhelming urge to indulge in the lovely little soprano voice as delicate and high as his own bass voice was deep and resonant. He stayed put, motionless and tense in the hot water.

“Come on, tell us what you’re going to wish for!” He could hear Meg’s voice plying with carefree playfulness.

“Yeah! We’ll tell you ours, so the least you could do is return the favor.” Clorica’s, slow, sleepy voice added to the conversation.

“Nope! It’s a secret!” Chimed his favorite voice of all.

“What if we guess?” Squeaked the even smaller, higher voice of Amber.

“Will you acknowledge it if we guess correctly?” The methodical, emotionless tone of Dolce joined in.

“Nah she won’t admit anything but I’m betting we’ll be able to tell anyhow. She stinks at lying.” Said Meg slyly. He waited for _her_ voice to retort, but it was absent. All the girls’ voices but hers laughed.

“Oh, that’s a good point! Let’s give it a try, then.” Said Clorica, “Is iiiiiiit….. a big harvest of gold turnips?”

“Oh, use your imagination, Clorica!” Meg laughed at her friend’s expense. “Why on earth would she insist on keeping _that_ secret, anyway?” A little chorus of ‘Aah, right.’ and ‘Oh, yeah…’ emanated from over the wall.

“I’m betting it’s about _love!_ ” Meg gushed.

“Ooooh!” cried several girls at once. Over in the men’s side of the bath, Bado silently swallowed hard. He was not at all sure he wanted to hear about her love interests, but he couldn’t bring himself to stand up and leave, either. He was such an addict… a junkie for any little piece of her, especially tidbits of juicy info like this, even if they’d give him as much pain as pleasure. Inwardly he cursed himself even as he made an effort not to stir the water, lest the sound scare them into hushing their voices.

“Heehee! Look how much she is blushing! She’s so pink now!” Amber chortled.

“It’s the bath!” his favorite voice returned, making his heart jump again. “It’s just hot in here, I always turn pink in the bath!”

‘Oh, gods…’ He thought, gripped by a confusing blend of arousal and discomfort. He couldn’t help but picture her perfectly nude and dripping wet. Whether blushing from the bath or her own shyness, the image of her pale perfect skin flushed pink over all her luscious curves very nearly unraveled his mind altogether. His own face grew hot and his pointed ears twitched, flushed with a sudden rush of blood. Another surge of blood went rapidly to his manhood, suddenly half hard at the mere mental picture of her like that.

‘Fuck.’ He thought with clenched teeth. He had to get out of there before this got any worse. Standing up quickly, he snatched a towel to cover his arousal in case anyone should enter the men’s bath just now. He didn’t have the luxury of being careful of the water’s sound anymore and his rapid exit stirred it  quite audibly. As expected, a little series of gasps and surprised noises came over the wall and the girls’ voices all hushed at once. He grimaced. At least he wouldn’t be taken off guard by any more torturous mental images born from their banter.

He dressed rapidly in the change of clothes he brought, but threw on the fur-collared, wide-buckled vest over them once again. Determination and haste motivated a slightly vicious air to the way he shoved his laundry into the knapsack and hurried out of the washroom.

Fortunately his long legs made his walking pace nearly any other man’s run if he was in a hurry, and he was out of the Bell in just a few more heartbeats. The dry, frozen air burned his lungs, still full of the steam of the bath, as he stepped outside and stalked down the street with a dark expression on his angular face.

Another few minutes and he was safe again in the Meanderer. The emptiness of the shop was once again a comfort to him. Pretending for someone sounded even more exhausting than usual just now. He was in no mood to put on a show if he didn’t absolutely have to. Thankfully, no one came. Stepping into his small living quarters behind a curtained doorway on the left side of the shop, he pulled a hand towel out of a pile of clean, unfolded laundry and rubbed his still-wet hair vigorously to soak up the remaining bathwater.

The clock somehow seemed to take a vindictive kind of pleasure in showing him that it was only four thirty. He couldn’t hide in the comfortable oblivion of sleep yet, not for hours. But at least once it finally was time to sleep he could look forward to a lovely, if entirely fictional, encounter with her as his one-track-mind painted delicious scenes dripping with what he imagined her bright, honeyed voice would sound like when fueled by the ecstasy of orgasm while he slept. Oh, those dreams were _such_ perfection while they lasted, but unfortunately it was their nature to always be followed by the cold hard return to reality upon waking.

But, what to do until then… The shop was already perfectly organized, at least to the standard he was accustomed to. He _could_ warm the forge up and drift off in the dull abdication of hammering out simple, practical weapons to sell. But, nah… forging was such a pain, and he’d just bathed. No sense getting all sweaty and sooty so soon… So, having nothing else to occupy him and having grown very weary of the imprisonment of his infatuation, Bado resorted to the tired, familiar pastime of leaning on one elbow on the counter in a slouching posture and trying to come up with new schemes for making money.

Money-making ideas were always safe… nothing was as inconsequential as money. And nothing was easier to get in a pinch, so fantasizing about that one idea that would really strike gold was a comfortable way to kill time. If all else failed, his blacksmith skills or the little odd jobs guarding things for a few hours in his old armor would always keep the roof over his head and food in his belly. He’d never been in danger of going hungry. Hell, even when he was in the knighthood he was a highly prized soldier worth ten of any new recruit so they’d hardly think to cut his rations. Most of the time he dined by invitation with the officers, who always had the best provisions available and were eager for him to owe them a favor.

Now, though, in the peaceful tranquility of this mundane lifestyle, trying out different get-rich schemes was a convenient way to add a little flavor to the days so that they weren’t _quite_ all the same. Plus, he was liable to go crazy if he really did as much nothing as everyone thought he did. Having a goal, even a stupid one, created the opportunity to learn, and that was enough… mostly… until she came into the picture…

Bado sighed hugely again.

‘Damnit.’ He thought, ‘I’m really at her mercy and she’ll never even know it.’ He leaned back in his chair, propped his feet up on the counter and gave in to it. Gradually, the thin winter sunlight faded through the little windows by the ceiling of the shop as he reached back into his memory and retraced his steps through every moment he’d spent with her since she came to Selphia. It wasn’t as difficult as one might think… It wasn’t as though they spent a lot of time together or anything. But, she _did_ make it a point to bring him a little something nearly every day like she did for most of the townsfolk. How the hell did she pull that that off? Remembering what everyone liked and making it herself… it was impossible not to love that girl.

Just yesterday she had come bouncing into his shop, her long, mint-green hair in twin pigtails down to the middle of her back bobbing about as she pranced up to him and deposited a large homemade onigiri into his big hands, beaming at him with a bright ‘Good morning, Bado!’. Man, _that_ had been a good day. He furrowed his brow, wondering if she’d visit him tomorrow… hoping she would, anyhow.

The shop had grown dark while he was lost in memories. He could see little pinpoints of light glinting in the velvety blackness of the winter sky through the window. The stars were out, so in all likelihood so were the townsfolk. It wasn’t all that late, hardly past seven. He’d managed to whittle down the evening a bit, anyway. But now, he was just about out of material and whenever that happened, his imagination had a tendency to try and fill in the void with its own notions…

He fretted a moment, looking around the room even though he knew damned well there was no one in it. These kinds of little diversions were not usually something he let himself indulge in except alone, in his bed, late at night…

In his mind he began to piece together the vision of her adorable face, her curvy little figure, and that lovely voice like a bell full of the warmth of springtime. He imagined her pink lips, soft and sweet and curling into a smile around his name. His eyes drooped closed as he abandoned the sight of the shop around him and dove fully into the fantasy. What would it feel like to have those lips press to his… to feel her breathe against his mouth in between little whimpers of delight? What would it feel like to slide his fingertips up her back and over her pale shoulders… to tease the strap of her dress off and down along her arm, revealing her collar and the tops of her breasts. In his vision the frilly little plain blue gown she ran around town in in the summer barely clung to her as deep breaths full of heat and desire made those lovely, pale, perfect breasts rise and fall in time with the sound of her voice just shy of speaking those magic words… ‘ _I want you_ ’

Just then the waking dream he was almost humming to shattered and Bado’s eyes snapped open at the sound of the door and the little bell attached to it slamming into his mind. Instantly his heart was pounding and adrenaline coursed through his veins. Regardless of whether anyone could have known what he had just been picturing behind closed eyes, it was never easy being caught fantasizing about someone you shouldn’t be…

He sat bolt upright, his back stiffening and his eyes widened in panicked horror as he looked to the entrance of the shop.

“There you are.” Said the very same voice that whispered breathy, whimpering, lustful things to him in his dreams nearly every night.

“Frey—“ He gasped, his voice choked by surprise.

‘Oh, divine dragons, no… not now…’ He thought in feverish denial, not quite free of the arousal he had stirred up on his own with that fantasy. His mouth went dry.

“What are you doing sitting in here in the dark?” She tilted her head and peered at him. The only light left in the room was the soft gold and red glow of the forge in the corner of the shop. He generally kept it lit and warm if not hot. It was too annoying getting it going from a cold start to let it burn too low. The contour of her every feature was highlighted by that burning light, like liquid sunlight clinging to her eyelashes and the tip of her nose… and her lips…

“Ah—I, uh…” He stammered, blinking and forcing himself not to look at those lips. “You just caught me—uh—napping, that’s all…” She chuckled.

“Why are you hanging around inside napping when you should be out there wishing with everyone else?” She chimed, walking over to the counter where he sat on the plain wooden chair, folding his arms nervously and closing all his posture in an attempt to bury any and all evidence of his mental state.

It backfired. She tilted her head at him and drew close, reaching out a tentative hand and touching his shoulder ever so gently.

“Hey… Are you okay?” She asked quietly, her voice and her eyes full of concern.

“Yea—ahem—yeah, I’m fine.” His voice had come out thin and raspy on the first syllable so he was obliged to clear it awkwardly and continue, “Just fine. Sorry. I, uh, didn’t meant to be weird or nothin’ I just—I’m fine.” He finished lamely and resisted the urge to wince. Could he have been any more awkward or suspicious? She did not release him from that concerned, bent-brow expression. He tried again. “But, why are you in here, anyhow? I figured you’d be out with everyone else lookin’ at the stars.” She smirked at him, spurring a combination of nervousness, confusion, and giddiness in him, none of which he showed outwardly.

“Well I _was_ out there with everyone else looking at the stars, until I noticed _you_ were the only one missing. So, I came looking for you.” His heart skipped a beat in an uncomfortable clenching feeling and he blinked stupidly at her.

“Wha?” He breathed, a knee-jerk reaction out of pure surprise. She giggled at his expense, covering her gleeful smile with her slender fingers. She was wearing a little ruffly skirt over patterned leggings and tall boots, a cute, white wool coat, fitted at the waist and a light, delicate scarf with wispy little tassels on the ends. Somehow the subtle glimpse of her neck where the scarf slipped down and her fingertips protruding from her sleeves, a little too long for her, was even more attractive to him than seeing her in her bathing suit at the lake in summer. It was as if the more of her that was obscured by clothing, the more the little parts of her skin still visible pulled on his imagination to picture the rest of her beneath all those layers. He swallowed.

“So? Are you gonna tell me why you’re hiding yourself away? Don’t you have any wishes to make on the stars tonight?” She hummed in that voice that pulled him apart inside.

“Who, me? Nah. I’ve got wishes, sure, but I’m not the kinda guy to go asking for somebody to just _give_ me ‘em. That’s no fun.” He answered, forcing his voice to sound smooth and casual.

“No?” She replied in curious tones. “No wishes for millions of gold or for one of your tricks to actually work on someone so you can strike it rich?” She was still smirking. Had she seen through his charade? It couldn’t be… her of all people realizing the illusory nature of his supposed fixation on wealth? He changed tactics, deflecting her.

“What about you? You sure aren’t going to get your wish standing in this dive with me instead of out under those pretty stars.” He tilted his head toward the door and smiled at her, letting on just a little of his affection. “Go on and play with all the others. You don’t need to be fussin’ over me.” She shook her head.

“No.”

“No?” He echoed, bending an eyebrow, half-curious, half-incredulous at her.

“I _do_ intend to ask for my wish to be granted. But I don’t need to be out under the stars to do that.” She said, very quietly, and stared into his blue-gray eyes with her mesmerizing green ones, not blinking or looking aside. He stared back at her, confused and paralyzed by the hold her emerald irises had on him. Without warning she moved closer, stepping around the corner of the counter and stopping just before him. Seated on the simple chair, his great height made him nearly as tall seated as she was standing. They were at eye-level, more or less. Her eyelids lowered slightly and her lips parted. Bado leaned back a little, staring blankly at her, terrified internally. He desperately hoped she could not hear the furious pounding of his heart against his ribs. It felt as though it would burst right from his chest any moment.

“Frey?” He gulped. _Why_ was she so close? Was she trying to see his expression better in the dim room?

“Bado…” She replied, exhaling his name with a velvety voice. It set off a very distinct sort of twinge inside him. Tension seized his shoulders and back. He couldn’t string a set of words together for all the gold in Norad, just now. He was powerless to do anything but wait. “My wish…” She continued, “Is _you_.”

Time stopped. The impossibility of what he just heard defied all his understanding of reality and his mind could not accept it. It made no sense.

“W-what?” He heard himself bleat in a voice like a handful of fallen flower pedals, insubstantial and fragile.

“What I want most… what I wish for… is you, Bado. I’ve wanted you nearly ever since the first moment I saw you. I’m in love with you.” She said all this calmly in that smooth, melodious voice, but even in his stupefied state he saw her trembling slightly as she spoke.  His mouth formed the shape of a question word but no sound came out. What the hell was going on? This was _crazy_! This was _impossible_. This was… precisely what he’d secretly wished and hoped for every minute of every hour of every day of this whole year.

And yet… He couldn’t let it happen. He couldn’t let her step into the forbidden realm of a romantic intimacy with him. He’d worked constantly, tirelessly, all this time, ever since he’d known her, to prevent it, though he never really expected a breach in his wall to come from _her_ side… Frantically he groped about for a strategy, an idea, _something_ to throw her off and make this un-happen. He heard his own mind spin a yarn and he drew in a breath and readied his tongue to turn this conversation into a combination of a misunderstanding and a joke. He’d say something sentimental but unrelated to her confession, maybe expound on the nature of how to seek happiness in life, then proclaim it all a lie in an effort to emulate the interesting lies she just told… yeah. It would work. It was just his style of diffusing a situation he couldn’t handle. Humor, frayed and ridiculous, but nevertheless effective at breaking any mood, was his first and last line of defense.

Just as his tongue and lips formed the first syllable of his planned verbal derailment, her slender, delicate fingertips rose up and pressed over his lips, shocking him into silence. They were soft and light, gentle and insistent at the same time. The chilly air of the winter night had made them cool, despite her bundled appearance. He stared into her eyes, unable to break the spell as she looked into his with determination and hope.

“No.” She breathed. “No tricks, no lies. I can see it in your eyes you don’t mean to answer me, but I won’t let you go astray before I get what I came for.” So that was it, then? She’d read him cover to cover like a cheap dime novel, bypassing all his careful defenses and precautions? “I. Want. You.” She repeated, slowly, emphasizing each word carefully. “All I want to hear is whether you want me too.”

Here was his ultimate weakness, pinned beneath her fingers and all that stood between him and the realization of all his fears, and all his dreams… He could not lie. Not directly. It had always been a vexing sort of handicap for him ever since he could remember. Sure it wasn’t good to lie, but sometimes one _needed_ to be able to do it… to prevent a disaster… to _protect_ someone. He had never in his life had the ability to lie directly to a person, no matter what was at stake. At best he could refuse to answer, which was as good as admitting whatever the truth was anyhow in nearly every case… and she had made it clear she would not let him go without _some_ kind of answer.

His will slipped. And what was so bad about admitting the truth? Now, unbelievably, she had confessed to have feelings for him the likes of which he had kept carefully disguised for her ever since meeting her. Now she was gazing into his eyes waiting, wishing, hoping to hear an answer that would grant her heart’s desire. Would it be so wrong to let her know? To let her in on the secret of his woefully starved passion for her? He hesitated several moments, staring unblinking into her eyes as he wavered… leaned… and finally, fell to temptation, all the effort and work that had gone into hiding his love crumbling as one word rode on a whisper out form between his barely parted lips.

“Yes.”

Her lips were pressed firmly against his before his mind even had time to hear the little pleading whimper as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him insistently, passionately, feverishly… the floodgates of restraint and resistance thrown open in her wild abandon, her desire more than anything else to lose herself in him. Over the last twelve months, all Bado’s effort had been concentrated on _preventing_ this kind of thing from ever even beginning to be a possibility. All his defenses, all his safeguards, all his resistance had been bent on not letting her know of his feelings and he certainly hadn’t expected her to come to him like this. And now… now she was kissing him and running her fingertips through his hair and beard and pulling in eager breaths between the delicious pressure of her mouth against his. He had no way of dealing with _this_ , no defenses for the one woman he wanted more than any other throwing herself at him and slipping her tongue into his mouth, now, _oh gods…_

Vaguely, he realized his hands had wrapped around her, too. His lips searched and pressed and plucked at hers as eagerly as hers did to him. She leaned into him with her whole body and he squeezed her tightly to him, breathing a voiced exhalation full of longing into her mouth.

“Frey…” He sighed her name between fevered kisses. His mind reeled. What was he doing? What the _hell_ was he doing? She set her hands at either side of his face and poured more determination and more desire into the next round of kisses, gasping for breath in between the turning of their heads as he mirrored her every burning touch. Oh, the taste of her… oh the smell of her, _oh_ how warm and soft she was… The sweetest fantasy he’d ever let his mind cook up could not hold a candle to the ecstasy, the absolute _decadence_ of the real Frey burning with the same desire for him that he’d harbored for her all this time.

Her hands moved down and tugged open the buckles of his vest as she captured him, helplessly lost in another hot wet confusion of their tongues sliding over one another. The sound of the metal buckles clinking and the feeling of the garment sliding off over his shoulders burned the fringes of his mind to ashes. The world had shrunk down to contain only himself and Frey and every part of her his hands ran over. He shrugged off the vest and it crumpled on the ground with a rustle and another clink. Her hands were all over him, smoothing their way over the hard outlines of his muscular shoulders and chest, and his went to work of their own accord in reply to this. Her white coat slipped easily enough from her little body and she kicked off her boots, still leaning forward to kiss him as if the only air in the world that could sustain her life was what she breathed in out of him as he sighed in absolute surrender to this fantasy made real.

Before he knew it she had climbed onto him, her thighs over his and her feet wrapped partly around the back of the chair. Her skirt slid up at the wide angle of her splayed legs so that a thinner fabric, what he could only presume to be her underwear, rubbed against his groin, crushed between the warmth and softness of her, and the hot, throbbing iron of his erection trapped painfully in his pants still. Automatically, his big hands reinforced this motion and squeezed her against him, encouraging the slight, fluid curl of her body as a wave went through the length of her and she pressed her pelvis against his when that wave whipped down her back to her tailbone.

Now, from nowhere all the rest of his words came flooding back.

“Ah, gods, Frey! Yes! _Yes_ I want you! I’ve wanted you like nothing I’ve ever wanted before since the day I met you!” He whispered all this into her ear between heavy breaths as his fingers worked their way under the rim of her shirt and slipped up around her ribcage beneath it, savoring the tingling warmth in his fingertips every single moment he touched her with them. Her ribs expanded and shrank alternately in his hands as she panted softly, staring into his eyes with hers dark and clouded with desire. “What I’m trying to say is:” He continued, breathless, “ _You_ are my wish too.”

“Aah, Bado…” She breathed, whining with a tangle of lust and gratitude and affection all warring in her tone. “I love you! Please… be mine… Now, and every moment from now.  All his effort and intentions from before were ended already. There was no reason to hold back anymore.

“I love you too, Frey. I was yours from the beginning. I just never thought you’d ask me to be.” With a little half-choked yelp of utter, overwhelming elation, she threw her arms around him and squeezed as if holding on for dear life, pressing her cheek to his and laughing in a broken voice.

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?!” She cried, both joyful and incredulous. “I would have asked you ages ago if I’d been at all sure you’d return my feelings. Even today, I didn’t know… I just _hoped_ beyond anything and it’s been driving me _crazy_ for months! I couldn’t stand it anymore…”

“Because I’m a fool, Frey. If I had known I could make you so happy by admitting my feelings, I’d have done it in a heartbeat at the first chance I got… I just never thought this’d be possible. And now…” He sighed with an apologetic look in his eyes with his brows tented above them, “I’ve wasted a whole year we could have been together spending all my effort keeping you at arm’s length. I’m sorry…”

“Well, then…” She said in a voice made of warm honey, and set her hands to work slowly unfastening his belt and prying open his zipper. The tension behind the fabric gave way as his tented underwear, dark cotton skin-tight shorts, gratefully bulged out from behind the zipper and he let out a trembling breath, looking helplessly at her through a thick veil of intense arousal. “We’ll just have to make up for lost time then, won’t we…” His favorite voice in all the world poured red-hot seduction directly into his ears and he shivered through his whole body just as her slender fingertips traced their way down his erection over the fabric of his underwear.

“Ahh… Oh divine dragons help me, Frey…” He gasped and sighed with helplessness to her will underpinning his pleading tone, “If this is some kinda trick… if you mean to get somethin’ outta me… it’s _working!”_ He panted, “I’ll give you anything, everything, whatever you want! And if this is a dream… gods, don’t let me wake up…”

“It’s no dream, and I already told you what I want…” She purred devilishly as she stroked his manhood slowly, torturously, and leaned in until her lips brushed his sensitive ears, sending bolts of fire flashing down his backbone. “ _You_.”

Any semblance he had left of rationality vaporized. Bado rocked forward onto his feet, holding Frey tightly to him as he stood up. Her feet curled around one another behind his back and she squealed with giddy laughter as he hoisted her up a little farther to bring her within easy reach of his lips. He feverishly bathed her mouth, neck, and collar with kisses punctuated by heavy panting and desperate little moans of lust curling out of his throat involuntarily. He stumbled to the door and bolted it without looking, never turning his mouth away from her perfect skin, soft and sweet and _hot_ to the touch. She was on fire… for _him._ She wanted _him_. All this time the object of her every desire had been a mirror of his own.  He could have died happy in this perfect moment. Everything he wanted had somehow been granted to him by the providence of… well, Frey, and her strange, beautiful heart which had resonated with his against all odds.

She pressed his mouth over and over with hers and he returned every kiss with equal energy and passion. Clumsy with most of all his resources focused on feeling her body pinned against his and her mouth and tongue overlapping with his own, he stumbled one step at a time back through the curtained doorway to his living quarters and all the way to his oversized bed. Once he felt his shins bump against the bedframe, he bent his back and deposited her with a yelp and a giggle onto the mattress, smoothing his hands over the fabric until they came to rest on either side of her head.

She looked up at him and batted those heavily lidded eyes, glazed with desire, but now he couldn’t help but hesitate.

He’d already gone much too far for forgiveness from the people of Selphia. If he took their princess to bed with him and made good on their mutual fevered hunger for one another, not only would there be no turning back, but there would be no possibility of claiming any semblance of innocence or pure intentions, either.

All his motivation was wrapped up in his adoration of and attraction to her. He loved her. He’d happily throw away his life in Selphia for her, but he would _not_ risk doing harm to her, even to her reputation, unless he could be sure she knew the risks and was equally determined as he to throw all caution and care for what anyone else thought or said to the wind. He would only pursue this passion with her to the ecstasy of its culmination if he could be absolutely sure it was what she wanted too.

“Frey…” He breathed, trembling as he combed over her with his eyes. Somewhere along the line she had disentangled herself from her stockings and scarf and let them fall haphazardly on his bedroom floor. Now, her button-down shirt was wrinkled and unbuttoned down to her abdomen, the fine lace of her bra, a delicate, gleaming white, peaking out seductively at him from the breach in her clothing. He swallowed hard and forced himself to speak again as she blinked slowly up at him again.

“Gods know I want to give myself to you, my gorgeous little pet,” He breathed in a voice husky and intoxicated with lust. It was a complete understatement. He didn’t just want to give himself to her. He wanted to blind her with pleasure and hear her unravel until she was exhausted and shaking and out of breath and then he wanted to lose himself in her with no reservation whatsoever. He wanted to hear her cry out to the heavens in desperate surrender to him as she came, and then he wanted to come inside her and feel himself melt and disintegrate into a fragmented spirit, conscious only of the absolute pleasure of being one with her, entangled in mutual trust, love, and desire. “I want to make love to you so badly I could come undone right now, Frey…” He tried again, “But I won’t move a muscle unless you ask me to. I will _only_ do this if it’s really truly what you want…” His smoldering whispers trailed off on this last promise and he looked into her eyes, perfectly still and waiting as he leaned over her.

Her eyes held his for a long moment full of their still-heavy breathing and then she blinked slowly. One of her slender hands lifted up off the bed where it had lain, palm up beside her head in an agonizingly vulnerable posture below him, and came to rest at his cheek, touching his face with a delicate tenderness wholly separate from the heat of the fever they had in common.

“Bado… It _is_ … I _do_ want you, tonight… but that’s not all.” She reached carefully down and unfastened the remaining buttons, butterflying her shirt open before him and he held a whimper back inside his throat. Her softly curved, delectable, perfect body was all but bare before him, her skirt pushed up and her shirt open. All that remained to chasten her appearance was those frilly white panties and the matching bra up top. “I want your body and your mind _and_ your heart, and I don’t just want them here, now, tonight. I want them tomorrow and the next day and every day after that. Give me every last bit of you, Bado, and in return…” She drew a deep breath and purred the last piece with intense affection saturating every syllable. “I will give you all of me. I will belong only to you… but you are my price. Fair’s fair, after all.”

He smiled broadly, brimming with the perfect high of having all his hopes and dreams answered in one fell swoop, and bent low to kiss her slowly and sensually, bathing her in gratitude and sighing contentedly into her mouth. Before long she had somehow inched, pulled, and tugged his tight black undershirt up over his head and off and he enjoyed a deep, swelling satisfaction at the way she ran her fingers over his broad chest and muscular abdomen, teasing his thick body hair running in a dark row down the center of him with her pale fingertips and gazing hungrily at him, her eyes lidded and glazed. She wasted no time relieving him of his pants, shorts, and socks too, and he returned the favor, last of all tossing her tiny undergarments aside and nearly toppling over from the absolutely dizzying pleasure of seeing her fully revealed to him.

She reached her slender hands out and beckoned him close, wrapping them around his neck and whispering in his ear.

“I’m starving for you, Bado… I told you I want all of you and I mean it.” Another shiver ran through him. He leaned closer, climbing onto the bed and hovering with his thick, hard length poised and dripping with precum just before her entrance.

“I love you, Frey. I always have.” He sighed and leaned into her.

“I love you, too, Ba—aaah! Mmmmm… aaahh…” Her reply was drowned out almost instantaneously by quivering moans of pleasure as he pushed himself into her, both of them already slippery and wet in their fever so that he met no resistance whatsoever from her body but slid perfectly into place, stopping at the limits of her insides just as the last of him was swallowed up by her sex and his thighs pressed against hers.

Had he ever been so completely, utterly, _overwhelmingly_ enthralled to a sensation before? Bado seriously doubted it. This was, well… virtually indescribable. How could one possibly articulate or confine to words the magnitude of these feelings now that his heart’s most ardent desire, to be with the one person he longed for most, had been unexpectedly answered all at once and with the kind of passionate insistence she had demonstrated… There was no language grand enough to express his elation, his gratitude, and the way he could _barely_ believe this was reality, but for the fact that his own imagination, no matter how colorful or obsessed with her it was, couldn’t possibly have invented how this felt… this perfect sensation of being physically and emotionally joined to Frey, knowing she returned his love.

He just breathed for a long moment. It was all he could do, all he could bend his mind and his will on with the luscious wet heat of Frey wrapped around him taking up most of his consciousness with a vicelike grip. His heart was pounding and so was hers, palpable through the very air between their faces, and especially through the lock-and-key fit of his sex in hers.

Finally, his mind seemed to return to him and he looked down at her lust-glazed eyes gazing expectantly up at him and felt that familiar flutter in his chest. Slowly, carefully, he shifted his motion and drew ever so gradually back out of her, leaving the tip of his member just inside. Her lips parted a little wider and a slight tensing of muscles seemed to travel the length of her body. He shifted his momentum and pressed her again, pushing into her with all the same dizzying intoxication the slippery gliding sensation of her blooming flower could provide.

“Nnnnnggghh…” She moaned softly and then gave a little high-pitched gasp as he finished the motion, feeling the resistance of her inner walls as the end of him pressed her from inside. Again… He continued, moving tantalizingly slowly and savoring every sound she made, every breath she took, and surprising himself with a bizarre amusement when he noticed how much he was trembling. Before long his slow, sensual rhythm was increasing, the tempo rising with the faster panting and gasping of his beautiful new lover beneath him.

Her lips parted and she began to give her hot, honey-sweet voice to her pleasure, spurring his movements and unravelling his mind. Oh _gods_ , the sounds she made… Every little yelp or cry burned him from inside, the fire of his lust already a white-hot inferno inside him as he thrust into her with increasing speed and vigor. His own panting breath overlapped appealingly with hers. She was getting louder, faster, more frantic… Her hands smoothed over his chest and shoulders and squeezed his sides over and over as she gave herself up to the pleasure of being joined to him. Her head tilted back and her cries reached upward in a crescendo. Anyone walking by the shop outside could surely have overheard her, but he didn’t care, _couldn’t_ care. All that mattered in this moment was Frey. As her rising anticipation singed his mind he ravenously craved her completion as much or more than she could.

 _Oh_ , he wanted it… to hear her voice break and see her twist and squirm and feel her body tense and twitch in rhythmic waves wrought of ecstasy and the fulfillment of her potent desire. …and, he was going to get his wish…

“Aaaahhh! Aaahh! Aah! Ah!” her yelping, high-pitched cries of pleasure grew short and rapid as he panted and pressed her over and over. “Ah! Ah! Ba—do—Oh—Ah!” She gasped and yelped with every beat, now utterly lost in passion and feverish delight, just as he’d hungered to see her. He felt himself slipping, losing himself by degrees as she neared the very summit of her pleasure. Her grasping hands clung tightly to him and her entire body tightened like a coiled spring.

“AAAahhhh! AAhhh! Oohhhh Gods! Bado!” This version of his name, made of the desperate panting breath that sheared out from her parted lips and blended with the primal cries of sexual climax spiked his own escalation sharply, hurling him into the throes of his own orgasm mere moments after hers.

“AaahhFrey! Frey! Oh, my little Frey…” He panted her name again and again as the dam broke and he came within her, squeezing her tightly to him as all the world as he knew it was wiped away in one sweep. All there was… all that ever was or ever would be, it seemed, was him and her and their two bodies entwined. “Aaahhhh! ahhhh… Ahh,” He sighed repeatedly, moaning as he very gradually came out of the fog of ecstasy and blinked drunkenly at her. She was looking back at him with lidded eyes; deep pools of emerald eternity saturated with adoration and a slightly smug satisfaction.

“I like the way you say my name in the thick of it.” She purred in her liquid voice. He huffed a breathless little laugh.

“Same to you, little devil.” He returned with a mischievous smirk.

“I can’t wait for _next time_.” She hummed seductively as he carefully removed himself from her, still generously wet and slick.

“Oh, divine dragons.” He sighed, and flopped beside her on the bed, still panting breathlessly, “You’re going to _have_ to… I’m dead…” He let his eyes shut and felt the full force of exhaustion bear down on him. Who knew having such unbelievable good fortune thrust on him all at once could leave one feeling as though he had forged an entire army’s worth of metal overnight? She snickered softly beside him and pulled the sheet and thick blankets over them both, snuggling close to him with her warm little body still humming with contentment.

He curled gratefully about her, holding her close and smiling from the bottom of his heart as he kissed her lips with tired, helpless movements.

“Oh, Frey…” He breathed. “I love you so…”

“I love you too, Bado. I’ve never been happier…” She returned in a voice like breeze at the height of spring.

Bado gazed into his lover’s mesmerizing green eyes and she into his gray-blue ones as they both drifted seamlessly into a gratified slumber, stilL softly caressing one another with gentle fingertips. Frey sighed happily as she slipped into dreaming, a soft little smile on her pink lips. _That_ was the most gratifying picture that had ever etched itself into his memory, he thought sleepily as he faded and his eyes shut, finally closing on a year full of solitary longing and hopeless wishing.

Outside the new year’s bells rang and the townspeople cheered in the distance. Ventuswill even gave a booming, ceremonial roar to commemorate the changing of the year. The corner of Bado’s mouth pulled into a smile. His last act of the year had been to grant Frey’s most ardent wish, and she had done the same for him. And tomorrow, on the first morning of the first day of the new year, he’d wake with her in his arms and realize all over again that she was his and he was hers. _This_ was going to be a very good year.


End file.
